Ohio State Football: Jim Tressel Was Scapegoat for Deeper Issues

One day former Ohio State Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel is going to be looked back on as one of the biggest scapegoats in sports.

Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines scapegoat as: one that bears blame for others: one that is the object  of irrational hostility.

One day in the sports world scapegoat will be defined as: Jim Tressel.

To be fair, Tressel isn't a scapegoat in the traditional sense of the world. There is no doubt that he was in the wrong during his time at Ohio State.

He knew that players were receiving improper benefits, chose to lie and cover up that fact, and even played them even though they should have been ineligible.

Tressel deserved to face the consequences of his actions. He deserved to be suspended and even let go from Ohio State, and we all know how that situation turned out.

He didn't deserve to be the scapegoat though.

It was rather apparent that Ohio State and Athletic Director Gene Smith felt that if they allowed all the blame to fall on Tressel and former quarterback Terrelle Pryor, they would be able to get off lightly with the NCAA and court of public opinion.

At first, it all seemed to work out for the Buckeyes. They were able to avoid any major consequences with the NCAA while looking like they were proactive in dealing with the issue.

News broke this week that more Ohio State players will be facing suspensions due to fresh allegations though, and now the Buckeyes are firmly back on the hot seat. Encarnacion Pyle of The Columbus Dispatch writes more on the situation:

"

Ohio State announced on Monday that it was suspending running back Daniel Herron, receiver DeVier Posey and offensive lineman Marcus Hall from playing on Saturday against Nebraska because they were overpaid for part-time work at Independence Excavating, the Cleveland-area company of booster Robert “Bobby” DiGeronimo.

Herron and Posey were to have returned to the field on Saturday after being suspended for the first part of the season, along with three other players, for selling and/or trading memorabilia for tattoos.

That isn’t the only bad news to plague the university since its hearing in front of the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions in August. Earlier this season, running back Jordan Hall and defensive backs Corey Brown and Travis Howard were each suspended two games for receiving $200 for attending a charity event. DiGeronimo also was involved in that incident.

Gee said the latest allegations were among several unresolved issues still remaining after school officials and former head football coach Jim Tressel appeared before the Committee on Infractions in Indianapolis.

"

Is there a deeper issue at Ohio State?

The very fact that they "took care of the problem" earlier this summer, yet here it is rearing its ugly head, suggests to me that it wasn't a Jim Tressel problem, but a systematic problem.

 According to ESPN, director Smith considers them to be individual failures:

"

Athletic Director Gene Smith insisted at a Monday afternoon news conference that there was no "systemic" problem at Ohio State, which has admitted to having several players involved in different NCAA violations over the past 10 months.

He blamed it all on the athletes, former coach Jim Tressel and a booster who on Monday was banned from further contact with the Buckeyes.

"These failures are individual failures: failures of individual athletes, and as you know unfortunately a previous coach, and a booster," Smith said when asked if the latest violations will lead to more serious institutional charges of lack of control and failure to monitor from the NCAA. "So it's not a systemic failure of compliance. I'm optimistic and I'm confident that we will not have those charges."

"

Perhaps this just may be a string of "individual failures" for the rag-tag remnant of the reign of Jim Tressel, but it's becoming increasingly harder to believe Smith and the Buckeyes.

Ohio State allegedly got rid of their problems when they forced Tressel out of the coaching position and essentially exiled Pryor, yet for some reason it keeps rearing its ugly head.

Both Tressel and Pryor got what they deserved and they have to live with those consequences, but maybe they were given a little too much of the blame.

Ohio State is obviously not as squeaky clean as they'd like you to think. 

Tressel was a great scapegoat and he did the job for the time being, but you can only hide your true colors for so long.

Unfortunately for Ohio State, it looks like the truth will come out sooner rather than later.